1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a record medium, such as a commutation ticket used in an automatic wicket system, and a record medium processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Automatic wicket systems which are installed at gateways of facilities, such as railroad stations, in order to eliminate or reduce labor are known. In these systems, commutation tickets deposited therein by users of the facilities are checked as the users enter, leave, or change the facilities. If the tickets are proper ones or are used properly, the users are allowed to pass through the gateways, and if not, they are prevented from passing therethrough.
These automatic wicket systems read information (e.g., entraining or alighting station name, etc.), magnetically recorded in a commutation ticket inserted by the user entering, leaving, or changing the station, and allows or prevents the passage of the user in accordance with the read information. These automatic wicket systems using magnetic commutation tickets are becoming widespread.
Proposed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication Nos. 3-116594 and 3-219432 are systems in which a commutation ticket is provided with a record display layer capable of repeated recording such that the state of the display layer is changed at the time of entrance or exit. Proposed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 3-151294, moreover, is an automatic wicket machine using a commutation ticket which is provided with a record section for recording commutation ticket information and means for indicating a reloadable balance.
These proposed arrangements have an advantage in that they are capable of repeatedly recording and erasing images. However, the durability of repeated recording is a problem with a commutation ticket which is repeatedly used several thousand times. Further, the processing time is long, since these systems additionally require thermal recording whose speed is lower than that of the magnetic recording.
Described in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 50-94906 is a display medium, as a high-durability medium, in which magnetic particles are sealed in a space over a magnetic record layer which constitutes part of the medium. According to this display medium, at least part of magnetic code information is converted into characters for magnetic recording in the magnetic record layer, and the magnetic information in the form of the characters is visualized by means of the magnetic particles sealed in the space so that the information is externally visible. However, this medium is subject to a drawback that its mechanical strength is lowered by the space therein.
In Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 63-271698 there is described a system in which transaction information is recorded as a magnetic latent image of characters in part of a magnetic record layer of a magnetic card, and the latent image is visualized by using a special viewer. According to this display system, there is no need of the aforesaid space for containing the magnetic particles, so that the mechanical strength of the card can be improved.
In the display system arranged in this manner, however, encoded magnetic information and magnetic latent image of characters are recorded in the common magnetic record layer. When visually observing the information through the viewer, therefore, the encoded information is inevitably visualized together with the latent image of characters. Thus, the security of the encoded magnetic information is a delicate problem.